Health and Wellbeing for Generation Z
Cope with stress and be happy
While university life can be enjoyable and fulfilling as you pursue your preparation for adulthood and the world of work, it can also be a stressful time. Surveys show that most MLCU students are happy with the academics and the extra-curricular student activities.
But this phase of life has stresses as well. Data from surveys conducted on campus in 2020 and 2023 shows similarities to youth all over the world. Among MLCU students:
• 87% of students have experienced occasional stress, about one-third of students feel stress quite often
• Emotional feelings of ‘nervousness’, ‘anxiety’, ‘easily irritable’, ‘loss of interest or pleasure in things’, ‘sleep problems’, ‘difficulty in concentration’, ‘feeling of failure’, ‘letting the family down’, was felt by 43 – 58% of students.
• Students use many coping strategies: try to work it out myself (63%), help from friends and family (61%), university teachers and counsellor (41%), distract with other things (43%), video games or movies (40%), more sleep (37%), gardening or cooking or baking (34%), arts or crafts (25%), prayer (22%), learning a musical instrument (18%)
About Gen Z
Research data shows that they are:
• More well-behaved, have less risky sex, and consume less alcohol and drugs
• Socially awakened by Covid, more tuned into social justice • Worried about the future, and have a need for self-sufficiency
• Quieter, with greater awareness of mental health
• Feeling neglected, their problems are not solved, there is distrust of authority
• Coping with cultural, music and arts
How to Make the Most of University Life?
Nic Hooper, a young psychology lecturer from Cardiff who specialises in an approach to mental health named Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), recommends the six ways to wellbeing:
1. Exercise
2. Challenge yourself
3. Connect with others
4. Give to others
5. Self-care
6. Embrace the moment
He provides a formula which will help you do well at university:
1. Figure out what’s important to you.
a. Identify your values
b. Set some specific goals
c. Recognize the barriers in your way and use mental techniques to overcome your barriers
2. Figure out how to interact with your thoughts and feelings so that they help you towards what’s important to you.
a. Difficult feelings are normal – it’s how you respond to them that matters
b. Develop your ‘willingness